At times, technological advancements and market forces prove more effective than government policies and punitive measures in changing unlawful practices. A classic example is the case study of crop residue burning in Punjab during October and November, which contributes greatly to Lahore’s smog, making it one of the world’s most polluted cities.

In previous years, the government imposed restrictions on the “burning of crop residues” through the imposition of section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code. But despite that, a vast majority of farmers stuck to residue burning to clear and prepare their fields for sowing the next crop, knowing that this practice pollutes the environment, destroys soil organic matter and kills friendly earthworms. Lack of time, labour, and financial resources are the major underlying reasons for such flawed practice. However, this year, a visible decrease has been seen in the in-situ burning of crop residues in several villages in rice-growing districts, primarily due to three factors.

First, greater availability and usage of half-feed rice harvesters are being witnessed in those rice-growing areas that contribute to smog in Lahore. In the past, large-sized, multi-crop combine harvester was excessively used to harvest rice crops. Such a traditional harvester takes the entire rice plant inside and, after threshing of grains, expels the chopped residue. It is difficult to manually collect such residue and use it for animal bedding, crop mulching, composting, or as biomass used for cooking and heating in rural areas.

Contrary to it, a half-feed rice harvester reaps the entire plant but takes the upper part (stalk) only for the threshing of grains. Thus, the farmer gets intact rice plants as by-products, which have good economic value. Since the quality of threshing is better, with minimum harvesting losses, farmers prefer its use.

Pakistan produces around 14m tonnes of biomass from rice crops, most of which is burnt

Second, tractor-driven straw balers are making inroads in rice-growing areas. They convert leftover rice straw (chopped or full) into bales of various sizes, ranging from 50 to 500 kilograms. Since industry and livestock sectors are increasingly using these bales (biomass) for various purposes, the demand is growing. As a result, service providers often pay farmers for these crop residues.

Third, due to a shortage of green fodder and higher prices of wheat straw this year, poor livestock farmers are collecting the crop residues of rice and maise to feed their animals. Despite being labour-intensive, livestock farmers consider it worthwhile.

There is a visible improvement at the grass root level in several geographic pockets, but the scale of the problem remains huge. Within close proximity of Lahore, the potato crop is cultivated in districts Kasur, Okara, Sahiwal, and Pakpattan on a large area of around 159,545 hectares — 69 per cent of the total potato area of Pakistan. Contrary to wheat, potato is planted in raised ridges/beds, which require fine land preparation.

To reduce smog, the agriculture department’s advisory for farmers is restricted only to wheat-specific land preparation after harvesting of the rice crop. Therefore, the use of a disc harrow, rotavator, rice straw chopper, zero tillage drill, super seeder, and happy seeder, recommended for wheat sowing after rice, is not a workable solution for potato farmers.

Thus, the vast majority of them opt for residue burning, and their contribution to smog during October and November remains greater than others.

Therefore, relevant government entities should sit with Pakistan’s agricultural implements manufacturers and incentivise them to develop and promote specific land preparation implements for potato farmers to solve this environmental issue.

More service providers of half-feed rice harvesting and crop residue baling are required to meet the growing demand for such services. The prime minister has recently announced Kissan Package, including a loan facility for agro-based small and medium enterprises. This can indeed play an important role in increasing the number of service providers and their geographic coverage.

It’s high time that the economic value of crop residues is realised. The ratio of straw to paddy ranges from 0.7-1.4 depending on the variety and crop growth. Thus, on average, Pakistan produces around 14 million tonnes of biomass from rice crops. But, unfortunately, its significant chunk is burnt, which can be used as raw material in the paper and cardboard industry or as biomass fuels in houses and factories.

Gleaning lessons from the experience and success stories of China and India, the government of Pakistan should also opt for setting up biomass briquetting plants under public-private partnership to offer renewable biomass fuels as a substitute for fossil fuel.

Mr Wattoo is a farmer and consultant in the social sector Ms Mehmood is a researcher in forestry and environmental sciences

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, November 14th, 2022